I Won't Bow Down (Not Any More)
by 2Kay7
Summary: He's the nuisance, then a god. He's a criminal, then the savior. He's above everyone, yet still the puppeteer's marionette. 'It's time to break free of these constraints,' he decides, 'it's time to go home.' "I'm neither a god nor an angel, and I'm definitely no saint. I'm just human, I'm just me." Tsuna smiled, "So stay by my side, don't worship me."


**I Won't Bow Down [Not Any More]**

 **Summary: He's the nuisance, then a god. He's a criminal, then the saviour. He's above everyone, yet still the puppeteer's marionette. It's time to break free of these constraints, he decides, it's time to go home. "I'm neither a god nor an angle, and I'm definitely no saint. I'm just human, I'm just me." Tsuna smiled, "So just stay by my side."**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own KHR**

Narration

"Dialogue"

' _Thoughts'_

 _Flashback_

Warning(s): Language

* * *

The last bell rang throughout the school. Everyone had grins on their faces, glad school was over.

"Finally!" Giotto exclaimed, his arms over his head while he leaned his back against his chair to fully stretch his upper body.

"What, school's too boring for you?" G laughed as he packed his packed his bag, Giotto doing the same soon after.

Giotto snarked, "Of course it is. You'd expect that they'd at least increase the difficulty in the 2nd year of high school, but the course work is still easy."

G raised an eyebrow, "Well not all of us are geniuses like you, Giotto. If you look around you'd see some of our classmates struggling."

"Speak for yourself," Giotto snorted, "you're as much of a genius as I am, if not more so."

"If you payed attention to what I said, you'd notice that I made no reference to myself when I said that some of our classmates were struggling." G smirked, making Giotto laughed.

"Come on Gio, G!" Asari called from the door of the classroom, gaining quite a few blushes and admiring stares from the girls in the class.

"Yeah, yeah." G lazily said as he and Giotto made their way to Asari.

"Bye guys, see you tomorrow!" Giotto said to their classmates as he was leaving, receiving similar farewells from them too.

The trio made their way to Lampo's classroom in the first year wing of Nami High before leaving. At the front gates, they saw a raven haired man seemingly in his twenties leaning against the wall. As they approached him, he tipped up his fedora with a finger and greeted them.

"Chaos." He said.

"Ciao, Reborn." Giotto greeted back while Asari gave him a smile and G nodded his head in acknowledgement of his presence.

"Yare, yare. Who did you kill this time?" Lampo asked tiredly.

G swatted the back of his head, "Show some respect, brat."

Lampo countered by sticking his tongue out at him, which caused G's eye to twitch at the clear sign of disrespect.

"Maa maa guys. Settle down." Asari said, laughing.

"I am calm," G said, taking in deep breathes.

"You're twitching hand says otherwise…" Lampo pointed out.

"You brat!" G snapped and he began to chase after Lampo to teach him a lesson.

Lampo decided to take cover behind Asari and when G made a grab towards him he ducked under the hand and moved to position Asari in between the two. This led them into running circles around Asari.

Giotto sweatdropped at the scene yet still laughed at them. Reborn rolled his eyes fondly at them when he saw the familiar interactions with each other.

' _And here I thought they were finally maturing."_ Reborn thought before he cleared his throat, catching Giotto's attention.

"What's wrong, Reborn?" Giotto inquired.

"I'm not here for a social visit this time, Giotto." Reborn said. Lampo, G and Asari stopped their little fun cat-mouse chase when they heard Reborn. G narrowed his eyes.

"Does it have anything to do with the recent attacks on V- _relatives_?" G quickly amended. They were still in public after all, it's better to be safe than sorry. Reborn nodded, yet sent a questioning eye to G.

"Ah, while you were on your business trip it was decided that Alaude would receive training to take over his family business." G informed.

"Daemon was offered a job too." Asari added.

"Uh… He's really good with information?" Giotto offered. Lampo just snickered.

"Hmm…" Reborn hummed, "anyways, let's get going. There's a lot to talk about."

They trailed behind Reborn as he led them to their base.

* * *

He woke up with a start, his face was drenched in sweat but he could care less about that. All he could focus on was making sure that he completely covered his tracks. He quickly cleaned up the cabin he spent the night in and left, making sure to wipe his fingerprints off of everything he touched. When he was done, it looked like no one has used the cabin in months.

It was dire for him to make sure that no one will be able to trace him. He had to be exceedingly careful since he was not in top condition. If he messes up and they end up finding him then… no, he doesn't want to think what would happen. He'll just have to make sure that he doesn't mess up. It's time that he reclaims control over his own life.

* * *

They were situated at the table in a meeting room, excepting Reborn who was standing at the front to inform them of recent discoveries.

"As you may know, there have been recent attacks on your familgia. We are speculating that it is a group of people wielding mist flames." Reborn shows them footage of the attacks and they see ice and fire appearing out of nowhere, killing all of the enemies. In the next footage, they see people flying in the air and seemingly pushing their enemies with a thrust of a hand. "As you can see, there is no physical manifestation of the flames they are using, hence why we are speculating, not certain, that it's the work of mist flames."

Reborn continued, "When we collected the bodies, we noticed that the injuries corresponded with what we saw on tape." Reborn paused, looking at each one of them in the eye, "Whoever they are, they are not normal mist flame users. Each and every one of them are capable of using real illusions, just like Daemon, Chrome, and Mukuro."

* * *

He's finally made it, after so many years. His eyes teared up a bit as his throat constricted. He took in the familiar surroundings he could only dream of seeing again in the past. He pushed the front gate leading to the house open and took a deep, shuddering breadth in before proceeding to the front door. He paused when he reached the front door, hesitating a bit before he shook his head. He knocked on the door.

"Coming!" He heard a woman call out before opening the door. Her hair was short unlike his memories of long, flowing hair. She was wearing an apron over her dress, suggesting that she was in the middle of cooking. Other than that it doesn't look like she has changed at all.

"Ara ara," she said, "hmm… you look familiar." With a tilt of her head she asked, "Who are you?"

He just smiled warmly at her, his lips were moving.

Her eyes widened.

* * *

 **Chapter 1 – Homecoming**

* * *

"So what do you guys think?" Giotto asked.

After Reborn reported Vongola's findings, he left to go to Nana. With Giotto strong enough to protect himself now and with a full set of guardians, Reborn was not needed to be with him 24/7 although he still tutors him. With recent events that could lead to the possibility of Nana being attacked, Reborn made it his duty to make sure Nana is safe. Nana is important to everyone, and no one wants to see her get hurt because of what they are involved in.

Giotto and his friends on the other hand, they are meeting up with the rest of the guardians to warn them of what's coming. When the meeting was done, Giotto immediately called the rest of his guardians and told them to meet him at Knuckles's house. Giotto remembered that Knuckle had previously told him that his parents were going to be out of town and he didn't want to leave his little sister, Kyoko, alone since Ryohei had a boxing competition.

"No big deal. Ore-sama will just blow them up-" Lampo began only to be rewarded with a fist to his head by none other than G.

"Be serious you damn brat!" G shouted.

"Nufufufu~ I'll have to agree with Pinkie here-"

"-My hair is _red_ you fucking colour blind _Melon-Head!_ -"

"Creating real illusions is no walk in the park." Daemon continued as if G didn't interrupt him. "Only a tenth of the people capable of manipulating the mist flames are able to cast real illusions. To be able to cast a real illusion means to have full in control of your mist flames. It's not something you can teach or pass down to your apprentice. Each one of us mist flame users have our own unique way of forming real illusions, we just have to discover our way of doing it on our own."

Lampo's jaw dropped, "It- it's _that_ hard?!"

"Of course it is," Daemon snorted, "we're making _something_ out of _nothing_. How 'easy' do you think that is?" Daemon said, rolling his eyes.

"Yeesh, you don't have to be that rude about it." Lampo rubbed the back of his head, his cheeks were a bit red from embarrassment. "It's just that almost all the mist users I know are capable of doing it, so I thought that it wasn't that hard to do."

Daemon sighed, "We're the best of the best. We're Von-fucking-la. Of course we'd be capable of doing things normal people can't do, Vacca."

Lampo stuck his tongue out at Daemon.

"Whoever these people are, they belong to an underground organization." Alaude stated, ignoring the squabble going on between the two.

"What makes you say that, Alaude?" Giotto asked.

"Look at what they're wearing. They are wearing black outfits in the same style: a long trench coat, pants, and boots." Alaude pulled out a few close up pictures of the men out of his jacket, "I grabbed these on my way here." He explained, "We can assume that they are from the same organization."

"They could have just bought the same outfit to make us think that." Giotto countered.

"No Gio, Alaude's right." Asari said. "There are too many people wearing the same clothing for them to do that. Plus, look here," Asari pointed out a small speck of colour – white – that stood out on the trench coat, "this is their emblem. I can see it every one of their coats however there is no clear shot of it."

Giotto inspected the photos, looking for what Asari spotted before leaning back, making a sound of agreement at the back of his throat.

"Ok," G said, "we've established that these guys are a part of some underground organization, but what can we do?"

Giotto thought for a moment, "We don't do anything," Giotto began, "we'll just sit back for now and gather more information about them. We need to know who they are, why they're attacking us and how much they know about us."

They all nodded, however Knuckles looks a bit distracted.

"Warn your siblings about this and watch over them. We do not want a repeat of what happened last time." Giotto warned.

They all flinched at that reminder. They had never felt so inadequate in their lives before. They failed to protect their siblings, which almost resulted in their deaths. They will not allow that to happen again.

"What's wrong, Knuckles-nii?" Lampo asked. He has had his eye on him since the beginning of this meeting. Knuckles was quiet throughout the whole talk, fidgeting. He was always glancing at the time nervously.

"It's extremely nothing, lil' bro." Knuckles said. He sighed when they all gave him the look. "It's just that Kyoko hasn't come back yet. She just went out to pick up a few items so it shouldn't have taken her too long but it's been an hour already."

"Maybe she got caught up in something? She could be just chatting to someone she knows." Asari suggested.

"I know," Knuckles said worriedly, "that's why I'm going to give her another half hour or so before extremely going out to look for her."

They all could understand Knuckles's worries, especially Daemon since he had a little sister himself. All of them were involved in something dangerous, and there was no telling when one of their enemies might strike them and their family.

"You sure?" Asari asked. "It's going to get dark soon, we could help you search." He offered.

"I'm sure." Knuckles said. "Kyoko's getting bigger now, and I already promised her that I'd ease up on coddling her. She's right; she's already in her last year of middle school."

"Nufufu… that doesn't mean you'll completely stop though." Daemon smirked knowingly.

"EXTREMELY CORRECT!" Knuckles grinned at him. They laughed.

All of a sudden they heard the front door open and a familiar voice rang out through the house, "I'm home, Nii-chan!"

They trailed after Knuckles as he rushed out of his room and down the stairs. He put on a goofy smile and pulled her into a hug, "Welcome home Kyoko!" He released her and had his hands on her shoulders, "What took you so long?"

"Oh! I was just helping someone around Namimori! They're a returnee. He's actually my age!" Kyoko said, smiling before it shifted into a concerned look, "I was planning on helping him do his groceries since he was injured." She looked into Knuckles's eyes, "He was involved in the big bus accident that the news covered the other day, you know. But he told me it was fine and that he didn't want to be a bother."

Their eyes lit up in curiosity as to who the new person was.

* * *

"What's the big occasion Mama? You're cooking up a feast." Reborn asked.

Nana giggled, "That's a surprise now, Reborn-kun."

* * *

They all left the Sasagawa residence soon after Kyoko's return. Daemon, Alaude and Lampo headed off on their own while G and Asari walked Giotto home.

"I'm home, Okaa-san." Giotto called out, "Asari and G are with me!"

"Ara, welcome back!" Nana said.

Giotto, Asari and G made their way to the living room where Fuuta and Bianchi were.

"Fuuta, Bianchi, Reborn," Giotto greeted, "where's Lambo and I-pin?"

"They're staying over at Yamamoto's." Bianchi answered.

"Gio-nii, Gio-nii," Fuuta tugged on his sleeve, "do you know what's going on?"

Giotto blinked at him, "…what's going on? What do you mean?"

"Mama's preparing a feast," Fuuta responded, pointing at the number of dishes on the table, "and I think there's more coming."

"I don't know," Giotto answered shaking his head, "Reborn?"

Reborn just shrugged.

"What does your hyper intuition tell you?" Reborn asked. Giotto paused, closed his eyes and focused deep within himself.

"It's nothing bad." Giotto finally answered. "On the contrary, it's actually pretty excited-" Someone knocked on the door.

"Ara ara," they heard Nana say.

"I'll get it Okaa-san." Giotto said.

"Thanks Gio-kun! Ah, Fuuta-kun, Bianchi-chan, could you help me for a moment?" Nana asked.

"Sure Mama." They said, going into the kitchen.

Giotto went towards the door with Asari, G and Reborn trailing after him, curious as to whom their mysterious guest was.

When Giotto opened the door, he was greeted with an unusual sight. A boy, just a few years younger than he was standing in front of him with a big bag of groceries in one hand. His other hand was in a sling that went around his neck. He had bandages wrapped around his head.

' _Could this be the boy Kyoko was talking about?'_ Giotto wondered before his brain short circuited for a second. He took a step back.

"Gio?" G called hesitantly. "What's wro-" G's eyes widened.

The boy's hair was like Giotto's – gravity defying – except that the colour was brown, as was his eyes, and his hair was shorter, although not as short as Iemitsu's. The shape of his eyes, his facial and body structure, they all were unmistakably Giotto's.

"Who are you?!" G hissed. His actions gained the attention of Reborn and Asari and they immediately went to Giotto's side. Their eyes sharpened when they saw the stranger.

"Wait!" Giotto yelled, preventing them from making any moves that could potentially cause harm to the stranger.

Giotto turned back to the person in front of the door, who was currently just standing there awkwardly.

"You…" Giotto began, "you're Tsuna, right?"

Tsuna nodded, "Yeah." He said before shuffling on his feet once more. "Um… can I come inside? My arm is starting to kill me and I'm afraid I might drop the groceries."

Giotto chocked out a laugh and took the bag in one hand, handing it over to G before pulling Tsuna into a hug.

"Welcome back, Tsu."

Tsuna's eyes widened in shock before he relaxed into the hug. He brought his hand up onto Giotto's back to return the hug.

"I'm home, Gio-nii."

* * *

 **Translation Notes:**

 **Vacca is Italian for cow**


End file.
